Officials: Don't trash those grass clippings

VALPARAISO | The city's Public Works Department would like a word with those residents planning on putting their grass clippings in with the trash: Don't.

Valpo urges residents to "Think Before You Throw"

VALPARAISO | The city has launched a "Think Before You Throw" campaign to encourage more recycling.

County recycling districts offer different service levels

With vastly differing budgets, the Lake County Solid Waste Management District and the Porter County Recycling and Waste Reduction District are worlds apart in what they can offer people who recycle.

Board delays Valpo sewage composting study

VALPARAISO | The city's Utilities Board tabled a proposal Tuesday to hire consultants Black & Veatch to do a feasibility study and project design for a facility to compost treated sewage sludge.

Friendly flushing: Water-efficient toilets help make sustainable homes

Commode, can, the Oval Office, and the Super Bowl. Throne, pot, loo, John. The royal flush.

Japanese composting may be new food waste solution

Down the back stairs of the clubhouse kitchen, on a plot lost among the expanse of tightly trimmed fairways and greens, weeks-old food is buried under a tarp and mulch and left to decompose.

Local gardeners create easy way to compost

Creating compost -- that amalgam of less-than-pleasant items such as dead leaves and flowers, vegetable and fruit scraps and even manure, which is then aged until it decomposes, creating a wonderfully rich organic material to feed our gardens -- dates back to Roman times.

Gardeners design composter for home gardens

CROWN POINT | Composting, layering grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps, twigs, leaves, adding moisture with circulating air, creates soil in a short time to return to the garden.

MARK KIESLING: Rotting food can be Porter County benefit

I worked for a while in the produce department, and as we tried to keep our products fresh, there was no recourse but to consign some overripe fruits and vegetables to the garbage bin.

Chesterton voices compost concerns

CHESTERTON | Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg revisited concerns over Porter County compost capacity Monday night during the Town Council meeting.

GUEST COMMENTARY: I'm enthusiastic about trash-to-ethanol proposal

With all that is being written about the garbage-to-ethanol plant and the Lake County Solid Waste Management District, there is a need to review where it began and where we are now.